He looked at his hands on the table.
"They were wrong about the category entirely. What sits at the center of that settlement is something the Church has never successfully classified, and that failure of classification is what killed four thousand soldiers." He looked up. "If Aldenmere partners with that settlement—genuinely, with the king present, with real commitment—then what stands between us and the Church's judgment is no longer our walls or our diplomacy or our carefully maintained neutrality."
He paused.
"It's him."
The chamber sat in the kind of silence that preceded significant decisions.
Maren spoke carefully. "You believe he can protect us."
"I believe," Edric said, "that after feeling a fraction of what he is—I would rather have him unconcerned with my existence than opposed to it. And I would significantly rather have him as an ally than as anything else."
He straightened.
